Why it belongs in ORBIS
Alpine-gear brand founded 1935 in Munich as a leather/saddlery workshop; refocused on mountaineering in the 1950s and moved its HQ to Bolzano in 1990 after Oberalp's acquisition.
Salewa was founded in 1935 by Josef Liebhart in Munich, originally as a leather-goods and saddlery workshop - the name abbreviates the German Sattler ('saddler'), Leder ('leather') and Waren ('goods'). The company shifted focus toward mountaineering equipment starting in the early 1950s, developing gear including adjustable twelve-point crampons, a tubular ice-screw design, the Andes backpack and the Helium helmet. In 1990 the Bolzano-based Oberalp Group acquired Salewa and relocated its headquarters from Munich to Bolzano in South Tyrol. Oberalp completed a new Bolzano headquarters building in 2011. Salewa remains part of the family-owned Oberalp Group alongside other outdoor brands.